拉斯維加斯 – changing Sin City into Love City

Just came back for our small trip to Las Vegas – in 11 days from now we have our 1st wedding anniversary and we decided to use long weekend and go to ‘The Entertainment Capital of the World’ from 4th of July to 8th. Our romantic first anniversary… and we go to capital of gambling and boobs. I guess it’s our tradition, on our honeymoon we went to Pattaya, Thailand.

Being in relationship with my Hong Kong man gave me some of that special ability to get the most paying the less, even thought we have money I can be called a bit cheap person – or as I call it ‘good money manager’ – spend less on things less important and save for something really nice. And I want to show you how you can have fun there with 1100-1200 USD budget that includes all the shopping, hotel, eating out, gambling etc. and how you can make that place quite fun and a bit romantic for a couple.

Before I start I put some movies on my (very small) facebook page so if you’re interested please see it:

My first advice – if you (as a lady) have problem with jealousy it’s not the best place to go for couple, you like it or not name ‘Sin city’ didn’t come from nowhere, you will see boobs. A lot. Your boyfriend/husband will get club-cards, doesn’t matter he holds your hand, he will still get some naked girls. Personally it didn’t really bother me, but some of the girls might get upset by that.

Once you choose to give a shot for Vegas first pick up the date and time: we didn’t have much choice since my husband has a full time job and still no summer holidays we picked long weekend – many, many, MANY people, besides that it’s summer – every day temperature was more than 40C so we could only go in the very early morning or very late to avoid the Sun. Best month in my opinion is around May or Autumn – not too hot, not too cold, probably less people since there’s no American holiday and most of tourist from Europe need to stay there and work but this one I need to confirm myself 😉

You should also decide how you get there – of course the most comfortable way is taking an airplane, but if you are from California or Nevada, you have time, energy and driving license rent a car (or take your own) and just drive. It’s WAY cheaper, gas in Nevada is also much cheaper than California, not to mention it’s so fun to sing along with your loved one your favourite songs and look for next rest area. It also gives you more freedom on picking the hotel or just going around the city, not only on the main street. On renting a car and gas we spent in total around 220 USD.

When it goes to picking a hotel we booked one via booking.com next to Circus Circus – Riviera Hotel and Casino, it’s bit off the main hotels like Ceasars Palace or Flamingo, but still close enough to just take a walk, much more quiet and the price was really good. We paid around 350 USD for 4 nights during one of the most busy time – 63.50, 92.50, 78.00, 27.50 per day plus tax and resort fee (15 USD per day). We booked the Deluxe Room but we got free upgrade to the Luxury room. Personally I just loved that place – when you take a look on it, it might look bit old (it was built in 1955 and it’s one of the oldest hotels in Vegas), but it has some charm in it – friendly stuff, really nice one, especially man who put my husband into my friendzone, we went to check in and asked if Luxury room upgrade is available since there were so many people trying to check in for 4th of July and he looked at my husband and say:

“Oh, it is but we only have a king size bed, no more two queen’s bed”

I smiled, trying not to laugh replied “It’s OK, we’re married, few more nights in the same bed won’t make me a difference”

Even in America it’s so suprirsing to see Asian man with white female, haha. But anyway – we had a really nice room located in Monaco Tower, swimming pool was bit small but it was enough for us. Not to mention they gave us very good coupons. We got for free:

2 coffees and a newspaper everyday

free tickets to see great comedians in their comedy club: Jimmie Walker and Don Barnhart, they were just amazing, made our faces numb from smiling

2 dollars of weekend brunch with champagne – of course everyone knows it’s a sparkling wine but hey! it was still very nice and choice of the food was really big, including sushi

a whole book of coupons that make you save up to 350 USD

If you try to save up some money, you like quiet and more intimate atmosphere in my opinion it’s much better choice than hotels next to the main road. Only complain I could have is that bathroom was bit small, but you don’t spend a whole day there.

When you’re finally done with all the planing it’s time for fun and entertainment. You might think it’s not a perfect place for a couple more for a bachelors party, not to mention movie ‘Hangover’ didn’t help Vegas’ image. But that’s our challenge and make our trip perfect with not too bit budget.

Besides going to see all the hotels inside and outside we went to my favourite place – M&M’s world. Just like heaven, all accessories, shirts, sweets connected to my favourite candies. It’s a place every sugar-loving person should go. We got ourselves two couple cups and some peanutbutter/mint M&M’s. If I could I would stay there for a whole day!

We also took our time and went all the way to Rainbow Promenade and… went to the cinema. Believe me, such a small thing for married couple made me really happy. As Asian my husband is really hard working, on weekends wetiny bit time left for us so going to the cinema was one of the most happiest things recently. If you don’t have time for it in your daily life during the hot day go to the cinema or bowling! Days there are so hot that you can use the hottest part of the day to bring yourselves dating time. It’s just less than 22 dollars but can give so much fun time and feel bit refreshed during your married and working life.

Maybe it will sound funny but good idea for spending some of your couple-time is actually gambling. Of course not very heavy one, but it would be a shame to go to Vegas and not trying it even once. We went to our hotel’s casino – it’s much smaller than the one in MGM or CP but it actually gives you more chances to win. In Bellagio we put 3 USD into slot machine – we won 10 cents which we lost later… That’s why I don’t gamble on bigger ammounts. And our tiny little casino gave us a big, big surprise. We sit for a while there, playing a slot machine, drinking some juice and from 1 cent shot (5 lines) I got… 10 usd! Can you imagine that?! 1000 times more of what I put (200 actually since it was 5 lines). It made me so happy I just took my check and run away with my luck! Beside that big win we had many small ones like 60cents, 1 usd. In the end from 5 USD we put into the machine I ended up with almost 20! Plus I could just walk after my husband and say that I’m his lucky charm! 😉 But remember – you cannot win with the casino, don’t put too much into machines or onto the tables cause it might in the end make you fight and who the hell wants to fight on their trip.

Men like gambling… girls love shopping! Guys, you cannot deny that puppy-eye’s look on your girls face when she seen beautiful shoes or handbag. It’s just the way we are built. I must say that luxury brand are much cheaper here than in Hong Kong, so if you plan to buy your girl a LV bag or Chanel dress just do it here, at least you will save some money! When at the beggining of my post I said I like to save up money to later spend them on something big I usually mean shopping or good meal and that’s the way we spent money we saved on hotel, transportation or souvenires.

You might ask ‘why on souvenires’ – it’s not that I didn’t buy anything, I got few stuff like magnets, postcards, cups and sweets from M&M’s world or we got a hotel T-shirt for free, so I made it very few and very cheap, because let’s be honest – how many of you wear all the city-shirts, holds 75733584 key charms and puts things they bought on their desk. I had my lesson when we went to Asia – I got my whole hand carry full of souvenires and I must be honest the only thing I use is magnet it is a memory locked in one of the luggages. It’s really nice to have it but I know I won’t use it so I try to save the money rather than later look with regret on how much money and space I wasted. My total for our souvenires was just 30 USD and I must say that it’s really more than enough.

We went to Las Vegas Prenium Outlet and Fashion Show Mall – we spend almost 300 USD but we bought a lot of stuff for a really good price. Lower tax plus things 50% off, just cannot resist. It’s really good price for so many items. We went from our city with 2 small luggages and one of them had just food inside it. We went back with 3 luggages and few bags in my hand. We bought:

Calvin Klein’s shirt

Banana Republic white pants

GAP shirt

Tommy Hilfiger’s shirt

2 tops from Forever21

H&M shoes, top and bracelets

2BE tank top and wonderful nail polish

Shower gel from Body&Bath

You must admit that it’s a really good deal – just need to deal with a lot of people (not a big problem for people living in Asia ;)), but it’s really worth to go there, they even give you coupons you can use beside that X% off. Hours of shopping made us so tired and our stomaches so empty. It was so hot that for me 2 meals is more than enough. From all the places we ate, beside weekend brunch at the hotel I would like to recommend you three places to go.

My 老公 likes Asian food in general and since we don’t have any good korean barbecue place with reasonable price we finally could eat it at ‘Tofu hut’ – 3920 Spring Mountain Rd, open 24h. We loved it so much we went there two nights in the row. First day we ordered brisket, boneless chicken thigh and marinated sliced pork belly, the other night just brisket and squid plus bean paste soup for him, because the first night we took too much meat. Most of the items but I cannot say a bad word about taste or service. You cannot take it away, they don’t really charge you for leftovers and they are generous once you reorder the small dishes. Price is 16.99 plus tax or 13.99 if you come during night.

The other place I would like to recommend is Lee’s sandwiches actually on the opposite side of the korean barbecue place – now it’s a chain restaurant but still the taste of ‘bahn mi’ a.k.a. vietnamese bread/sandwich is good. Maybe they shouldn’t add cheese into it, but I guess it’s to suit white’s people taste, I liked it but my husband was bit upset. Beside that we ordered soy milk and raspberry smoothie, price was smaller than at Subway, it was much more tasty.

That kind of food made us feel like we just met and go dating, like teenagers. Perfect combination – cinema, bowling and good food. But since we are adults, we’re family now for almost a year we went to have our own special meal – main reason why we went to casual dining places was making last of the mean very unique, different from other days. If you have it everyday it stops being special, becomes just another daily things. We dressed up nicely and we headed to Lawry’s The Prime Rib – it was lovely, intimate, service was great, we drink a bit, got a delicious meals, we shared a dessert… And with tip it was just 170USD. Honestly for portions they give, the quality of food – it’s worth, not overpriced at all, not to mention our service lady was so charming and smiling, taking really good care of us. Plus everyone who compliments my purse is my friend! 😉

After that lovely night we headed back to our place full of energy and shopping bags. For not spending too much we got very good service, experience and memories. And in this place I want to thank my lovely Hong Kong husband for driving so long and treating me like his little queen. Now we’re waiting for 20th of July.

Hope I could help at least one person with their choice of LV, enjoy it and remember – if you like to see videos from Las Vegas check out My Hong Kong Husband on facebook

5 thoughts on “拉斯維加斯 – changing Sin City into Love City”

This is so awesome Paulina! I too opt for “cheap” travelling so that I could stretch my money a little more and see more places in the world! it definitely look wonderful trip Paulina. I will come here for more tips should I decide to see Las Vegas one day. 😉